


Through it all

by lokiedokiee



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avenger Loki (Marvel), Black Widow - Freeform, Bruce Banner - Freeform, Bucky Barnes - Freeform, Captain America - Freeform, F/M, Hawkeye - Freeform, Hulk - Freeform, Iron Man - Freeform, Loki Odinson - Freeform, Loki x Reader - Freeform, The Avengers - Freeform, clint barton - Freeform, loki laufeyson - Freeform, natasha romanov - Freeform, steve rogers - Freeform, tony stark - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:40:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21550036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lokiedokiee/pseuds/lokiedokiee
Summary: Just some Loki flangst I wrote at like 2am with no real direction :)
Relationships: Loki/Reader, Reader/Loki
Comments: 1
Kudos: 39





	1. Through the fire

“Y/N. Y/N!”

Your head jerked up and your eyelids snapped open as you heard your name being called. Tony was staring at you with a look of almost despair on his face.

“This is important Y/N! I’m sorry, I know it’s the middle of the night, but you need. to wake. up.”

“S- sorry Tony.” you yawned, feeling guilty at having dropped off. Although, none of the others looked anymore awake than you felt.

You and the rest of the Avengers were in the Quinjet, it was exactly 2:37am and you’d been woken up by the sound of Tony running through the compound yelling at everyone to get up RIGHT NOW. You were currently speeding towards a fight which had been building up for months: it was too ‘dangerous and top secret’ for you to know the details, but if it was a good enough reason to fight for Tony then it was a good enough reason for you too. However, you didn’t see why you all had to have been woken up in the middle of the night. All your brain had been able to compute was ‘surprise attack’ and ‘kill the bad guys’; that was all you needed. Being an Avenger was great and all, but at times like these you despaired at the responsibility that was put upon you.

Your head involuntarily slumped again, and you felt a cool hand rest on your thigh. Loki. Placing your hand on top of his you gave a grateful squeeze as you felt his magic running through your veins; suddenly you felt a lot more awake. You turned your head to smile at him, your eyes fully open now, and he winked at you briefly before returning his attention to what Tony was saying, entwining his fingers with yours. Tony was reiterating yet again how dangerous this was and how careful you all needed to be; you couldn’t help but notice how nervous everyone looked. There was a vague sense of panic in the air which you didn’t like one bit. As one of the newest recruits, along with Peter Parker (who you had become fast friends with) Loki and Bucky, you hadn’t been told the full story (much to your annoyance); you had been told it was for your own safety. Even more disgusted at this was Loki, who had been through “much more than this trivial ordeal” and couldn’t believe that “as one of the only two gods on the team” he “still couldn’t be trusted”. You were reluctant to remind him of the reasons Tony and the others probably wouldn’t trust him for a while. After managing to persuade him that it was fine not knowing all the details (“it’s for my safety too Loki”) (that had shut him up), he’d accepted that he didn’t know everything and agreed to help anyway.

The Quinjet landed with a slight bump, and everyone stood up simultaneously. No one spoke for a moment; the air was fraught with tension. Tony swallowed nervously.

“Okay. The odds are against us right now, but when have they ever been for us?”

That was true.

“Just be careful alright? All of you.”

As he spoke those last words he looked directly at you and Peter, worry clearly etched on to his face. You felt Loki’s hand tighten around yours.

The back of the Quinjet opened into the night and everyone began to file out. You were about to follow when Loki tugged lightly on your arm, and you turned to face him.

“It’s going to be fine.” he murmured, and you opened your mouth to reply doubtfully, but he shook his head before you could speak.

“It’s fine.” he repeated, tilting your chin up to look at him and forcing a smile. You could tell it was forced; it didn’t reach his eyes – he was worried. This didn’t do anything to help your nerves.

“Just be careful, and- “

“Stay close to me.” You finished for him, having heard him say it a dozen times before. “I know.” You were suddenly scared for what was about to happen, you wanted confident Tony and Steve yelling orders at everyone, not this subdued nervous vibe. It felt wrong; like you’d already lost.

Loki smiled again and brushed his lips against your forehead for a fraction of a second, before leading you outside to stand with the others. Clint remained in the cockpit; he would hover over the scene and be ready to intervene if things went wrong.

The Quinjet hummed quietly as Clint took off, and then became invisible. It was a small comfort knowing he was up there, waiting.

“You know the drill, let’s get in and out as quickly as possible.” Tony said, pointing towards the dark building that loomed behind you. Reluctantly, you followed the group towards the run-down building that seemed to exude despair, feeling your magic bubbling just below the surface, ready to protect yourself and the others if anything unexpected happened.

Inside the building it was deathly quiet, the only audible noise the sound of your footsteps echoing around the abandoned lobby as you spread out.

“I don’t like this. It’s too quiet.” Tony said in a low voice from the other side of the room.

“Wait… does anyone else hear that?” Steve asked, frowning slightly.

You strained your ears, and became aware of a barely audible crackling sound coming from… where was it coming from? Then, suddenly, a much louder sound. Gunshots, heart-stoppingly close to where you were stood.

“Shit!” you heard someone yell, and you acted without thinking, throwing up your hands to create a protective shield around you and the people nearest to you. Now there were more gunshots, louder and more frequent with every second that passed. The initial shock had passed; everyone was ready for a fight, so you took down your shield and started blasting the men that had appeared all around the room with your magic instead, sending them flying backwards through walls and even once the ceiling. Having cleared the lobby relatively easily you piled after the others into another room and continued to fight, until suddenly…

“Um, where did they all go?” Peter asked, spinning around in confusion.

Equally confused, you turned back towards the door just in time for it to slam shut in your face. Heart pounding, you ran to it and threw your whole body weight against it; it didn’t budge.

“This door is locked too!” Nat called from the other side of the room. You frowned, what was going on?

“A trap.” Tony said, his face void of emotion.

“…no. No, it’s not. It can’t be- “

The lights went out. It was pitch black. Now all you could hear was the sound of your friends’ breathing.

“… a trap.” Bruce finished dejectedly.

You let your magic rise back up to the surface of your hands, and then hurled it powerfully towards the locked door. It barely dented it.

“How…?”

“Let me try.” Thor said confidently, and proceeded to try and break it down with Mjolnir.

“What magic is this?” he growled, when it did little more damage than your magic had done.

“Clint, can you hear this? We’re stuck, it was a trap- “

You moved back to let the others try and break down the door, suddenly feeling claustrophobic trapped in this room. It wasn’t a small room, but it was dark, and cold. You hated the idea of those men outside, knowing they had you cornered in here. In an attempt to make the room seem less dark, you created two glowing balls of magic, one in each hand, which illuminated your face in the darkness. Wanda followed your lead, and then Loki, who was by your side in an instant.

“Are you okay?” he murmured, and you gave a singular nod, relieved that he was uninjured.

Suddenly, you heard the noise again, that crackling noise. It sounded like…

“You guys, can anyone smell smoke?” Wanda asked sharply and suddenly.

“Listen.” you said hoarsely, your mouth suddenly very dry. The crackling was louder now, and now Wanda had mentioned it, you could smell smoke.

“It’s fire. They’ve started a fire.”

“Fire? You’re saying they’re just gonna burn us alive?” Bucky asked disbelievingly.

Everyone started talking loudly and at once at that, and you felt your head spin. How on earth were you meant to get out? The room was suddenly too hot rather than too cold, and the crackling was getting louder and louder.

“Shut up! I have an idea, but you lot are going to need to stand back. Quickly, before the walls get too hot!” Thor demanded loudly and insistently. Unused to him being so demanding, everyone immediately backed up, trying not to touch the walls which were warming up fast. A light appeared in the middle of the room; you recognised Mjolnir glowing in the darkness.

Thor was trying to summon lightning.

“Thor whoa, are you sure…”

“Shhh!” Steve hissed, poking Bucky who was stood next to him. “He’s the god of thunder, he knows what he’s doing.”

You raised your hands, creating a shield around you, Bruce and Nat, and saw Wanda do the same to surround her and the people nearest to her. Loki completed the shield; now there was a protective wall separating Thor and the rest of you.

Seconds later there was a huge rumble of thunder, and then a searing heat and blinding light as the roof was smashed open and lightning rained down into the room. You squeezed your eyes shut and turned your face away but kept your hands raised to keep the shield up, but why was the heat more intense facing that way? Opening your eyes, you gasped and lurched backwards – the whole wall was on fire. In fact, the whole room was now burning, the wood cracking and curling loudly. The shield was broken, but now there was a huge gap in the ceiling: your escape route. The men had presumably forgotten they had been trying to entrap the god of thunder.

“Let’s go! Quick!” Tony yelled, grabbing Peter and flying up through the new hole in the roof. As one of only four present that could fly, you were suddenly under a huge amount of pressure, which increased drastically when the doors slammed open and the men, having realised you’d found a way to escape, came pouring back in heavily armoured and with bigger guns than before; your heart faltered as they started firing at your friends. Instinct kicked in and you went into attack mode, sending the men smashing backwards into the fire with no remorse, determined to get them away from everyone behind you. Nat, Thor and Bucky were by your side, driving the men back; they seemed to have met their match.

“Y/N! Help!” you heard Wanda yell behind you, and turned to see her trying to levitate Bruce in his hulk form towards the roof. You ran over and helped her lift Bruce outside; Peter was already out there, and Tony landed on the grass with Steve as the Quinjet became visible again and hummed its way towards the ground. You, Wanda and Tony flew straight back inside where the heat was now almost unbearable; Thor, Bucky and Nat were still fighting – you could see Bucky was hurt even from up here. You flew down and landed in front of him hard, throwing up a wall of magic and then hurling it at the men, you didn’t understand how they were still coming, or where from. Momentarily distracted by your protective wall, the gunfire ceased for a second; you turned around to grab Bucky, wincing when you saw the bullet in his leg.

“Buck, hold on to me!” you yelled, having to shout over the noise of the flames and gunfire. Somewhere within the building there was a huge crash and a whoomph of hot air: the ceiling was falling in. Bucky put an arm over your shoulder, and you flew up towards the ceiling, slower this time as you only had one hand free; the other was holding a shield of magic so you wouldn’t get shot on the way up. You saw Wanda overtake you with Nat.

Outside you gasped in the clean air and tried to set Bucky down as gently as possible, unable to stand again once you touched the cool grass.

“We need to get him in the jet, now!” Steve was saying, pressing a hand to Bucky’s bloodied leg.

“They’re coming, get inside!” Tony yelled, landing on the grass next to you with Thor and hauling you to your feet. You coughed, there was too much smoke in your lungs and your head was spinning.

“Y/N, it’s okay, get inside…” Tony was saying, leading you up the ramp swiftly. You could hear the rattle of machine guns behind you again.

“Is everyone here?” Clint yelled, scanning the room, already closing the ramp. Bullets were hitting the side of the Quinjet.

You glanced around at everyone, wait… where…?

Your heart stopped. Loki. Loki wasn’t there.

It took your body a second to catch up with your brain, but when it did you moved lightning fast, out of the jet and in the air in seconds. You were immediately under fire, but your magic was surrounding you already and nothing hit you as you shot back into the building, ignoring the heat and the smoke.

Inside you could barely see or breathe, the smoke was so thick and the heat was suddenly searing. Tears sprung to your eyes, half from being unable to breathe and half from the fact that Loki was in here somewhere, you’d left him, how could you not have noticed?

“Loki!” you yelled, dropping further down into the heat, unsure whether to be alarmed or relieved that he wasn’t just lying on the floor somewhere. You tried to draw another breath to yell his name again, but you inhaled pure smoke and ended up coughing and wheezing violently, spinning in a circle desperately, your eyes streaming. You knew you had to get out, but you couldn’t just leave, he was in here… somewhere. Starting to feel light-headed, you smashed through a door into another room, sobbing in desperation when there was nothing but more fire and smoke in there. Your magic was so weak now it was barely protecting you from the flames, and you struggled to draw a breath, your head pounding.

Suddenly, a pair of red metal arms grabbed you around the middle and you were being hauled backwards, upwards, fast.

“No… Loki…” you choked, struggling in vain against Tony’s suit and watching through blurred vision as you were flown out of the building and towards the Quinjet. The men were gone, there were no guns, and then you were inside the Quinjet, lying down on the floor, numb.

What had just happened?

Everyone was crowded over you, checking on you, asking if you were alright when Loki was the one back there, the one who was being left behind as the Quinjet flew away.

You were reeling, you couldn’t think straight, everything was spinning and your chest was so tight, you couldn’t breathe… the smoke…

“Y/N!” you heard Tony call your name, why did he sound so alarmed, you were fine…

Your heartbeat was loud and powerful in your ears, until suddenly, it wasn’t. You felt your heart stop for the second time in ten minutes, but this time, it didn’t start again.

The pain washed over you abruptly and unexpectedly, and now you really couldn’t breathe, you felt someone grab your arm and you squeezed your eyes shut, feeling your head become ten times heavier and droop back all of a sudden. This couldn’t be how you died, could it? Not now, not today, not like this…

The pain took over, and you felt yourself succumb to the darkness.


	2. Through the ashes

The beeping was what woke you up. You slowly regained consciousness, becoming more and more annoyed at the noise. On second thoughts, you’d had the most horrible dream, so maybe it was a good thing you were waking up. Your eyelids felt suspiciously heavy, and you had to work twice as hard than usual to open them. When you did, you wished you hadn’t. Because it all came flooding back. The pain that shot through your chest when you remembered that your dream hadn’t actually been a dream had nothing to do with the fact that you’d been injured while fighting.

Hot tears leaked from under your eyelids, and you let your head fall back on to the pillow of the bed in the medical ward back at the compound. The beeping sound was your heartbeat on the monitor attached to you. Had you really been that badly injured? You didn’t care. Nothing mattered.

All you could think about was Loki. What had happened to him? One minute he was there, and then the next… It had all been so hectic; you’d been hellbent on getting your friends to safety, you hadn’t even realised, hadn’t even thought about where Loki might be. Gods. How could you have let this happen?

A small snorty sound to your left made you turn your head, and you realised for the first time that Tony was asleep in a chair next to your bed. He looked utterly wiped out. A pang of guilt shot through you, he’d had to go back into that building for you, he could’ve been hurt. Turning your head the other way, you saw Bucky asleep on the bed next to you, his leg wrapped up and levitated. You could see him breathing, phew. Steve was slumped in a chair by his bedside, also asleep. But why was everyone asleep? How long had you been out for?

“Tony?” you asked tentatively, fresh tears of pain springing to your eyes as the sound grated against your throat and made a horrible rasping noise. You cleared your throat painfully and tried again.

“Tony.”

Tony jerked awake and stared at you for a few seconds before clocking that you were awake.

“Y/N, oh my god, you’re awake, you – are you okay? Do you feel okay?” he stammered, leaning forward anxiously. The palpable relief on his face bought more tears to your eyes, and then, all of a sudden, you couldn’t stop crying. Tony flicked a switch which bought the top half of the bed up to bring you to a sitting position, and moved forward to hug you. You rested your head on his shoulder and sobbed, ignoring the renewed pain in your chest. Tony stroked your hair for a while, and then pulled away gently; you rested back against the pillows.

“We thought you were in a coma.” Tony breathed, sounding immensely relieved.

“I’m sorry.” you whispered, wiping your face.

“No, Y/N, I’m sorry, it was unfair what had to happen back there, but we couldn’t go back. Even if it had been Steve or Nat, we had to leave before they could…” here he trailed off.

“It’s okay, I don’t know all the details. I just… we left him..” you couldn’t finish.

“Y/N, he’s Loki, I’m sure he’s okay.” Tony reassured you.

You nodded stiffly, praying that it was true.

“Don’t you want to know what happened to you then?” Tony asked, tapping your chest.

“I thought I was passing out, but then the pain… I’ve never felt anything like that before.” you answered, rubbing your chest.

“You had a heart attack, a small one, but it was still pretty bad. You inhaled a lot of smoke.” he told you solemnly.

You blinked. A heart attack?

“Am I okay?” you asked nervously.

“Yes, thank god, but Steve had to do CPR on you until we got back, it was… yeah.” Tony finished, unable to find the words.

“Where are the others?”

“Asleep – everyone was pretty wiped out after we got back, but no one would leave until they knew you two would be okay.” he smiled, gesturing towards yours and Bucky’s beds.

“What time is it?”

“It’s… 9:47am, wow, I should probably wake the others and let them know you’re awake and okay.” Tony replied, standing up and stretching.

You were staring at your hands. Seven hours. Loki had been gone for seven hours, and you’d just been sleeping. Tony saw your expression and sighed.

“Y/N, I promise you that if he doesn’t turn up later today we’ll start looking okay? I’m not so cold hearted that I would just leave it. Besides, we’ll have to go back sooner rather than later, those bastards need to be beaten properly next time.”

You smiled obligingly, unconvinced, and watched Tony leave the room to wake the others. You didn’t believe that he would be this laid back if anyone else had been left behind, especially you or Peter, but you wouldn’t press it. You just needed to talk to Thor.

“Y/N? Are you awake?” Bucky’s voice carried across the room to you.

“Buck! Yeah, are you okay?” you asked, leaning forward to see him.

He gave you a tired wave. “All good.”

Then Steve was awake too.

“Buck, thank god, are you okay?”

Bucky chuckled. “I have a feeling we’re gonna be asked that a few times today. I’m fine Steve.”

“We?” Steve asked, and then turned and saw you. “Y/N, you’re awake! We thought you were…”

“In a coma? I’ve heard.” you said. “And I’ve also heard that a certain someone saved my stupid ass last night too… I’m sorry you had to do that.”

“Hey, any of us would’ve done the same had it been a different person.” Steve replied, glancing at Bucky. “I’ll bet anything that no one would have been able to get Tony out had it been you or Peter, and Thor was right behind you when we realised Loki was missing.”

“He was?” you asked, and Steve nodded. You hadn’t even noticed; you’d been in such a state.

“We’ll find him okay? If he doesn’t find us first.”

You nodded, feeling more tears spring to your eyes: you really needed to stop crying every two minutes. Crying wasn’t going to get Loki back.

Tony re-entered the room and clapped Steve on the back, then addressed you and Bucky.

“The others are getting up and they’ll all want to see you, Y/N you can get up but take it easy okay?” he said, coming over to your bed and starting to detach you from all the machines you were hooked up to. You shot Bucky a sympathetic look; Tony still acted frosty around him after all this time, despite you all trying to convince him to forgive him and move on. When you were tube free you stood up slowly, and felt fine. Despite this, Tony still walked you up to your room, waited outside while you got changed and then walked you back down to the kitchen, where everyone was sat eating. There was a chorus of “Y/N!” and then you were being sat down and having food thrust upon you, and a lot of sympathetic looks were being thrown your way. Bucky was getting his fair share of attention to, being in a wheelchair (he’d refused to stay in the medical ward).

After a few minutes, when you’d finished eating your three bites of toast, Thor came and sat next to you. He looked awful; it was evident he hadn’t slept.

“Hey.” you said, pushing your plate away.

“How are you? What you did back there was… extremely brave.” Thor told you.

“You mean extremely stupid.” you replied, looking down at your hands.

“He would’ve done the same for you.” Thor said, with a sad smile.

“And you.” you said firmly, putting a small hand over his large one.

“Maybe. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you… although we’re not the closest of brothers, I would know if something seriously bad had happened to him – he’s okay.”

You exhaled sharply, going almost lightheaded with relief. “So he’s not…”

“I would almost certainly know if he was… and no, he’s not.”

Neither of you could bring yourself to say it. You hadn’t allowed yourself to entertain the idea that Loki wasn’t okay, but now that the possibility of death had been ruled out you felt much better. There was no way he wouldn’t find his way back to you.

“So, where is he then? Why hasn’t he come back?” you asked, automatically looking out the window as if he was going to be stood on the grass waiting to be let in.

“Well, that’s the thing… I think he’s being held prisoner.”

You nearly laughed, Thor thought Loki was being held prisoner by Midgardians? It was awful to think that the ‘men’ had just been normal Midgardians who had somehow (most definitely illegally) come across this powerful magic, and were using it against you, but the fact that they were holding someone prisoner with it? It would’ve made you angry even if it wasn’t your boyfriend they were holding prisoner.

“I know, it sounds ridiculous, but they had some pretty powerful magic keeping us in that room, and if all of that was concentrated on one person, even a god…”

“Thor! What happened to top secret and dangerous? So that’s what this is about, they’ve got their hands on some powerful magic and…?” you trailed off, waiting for him to finish.

“Here are your options: I don’t tell you and stay alive, or I do tell you and Tony kills me.” Thor replied.

You sighed. At least you knew some of the story now. Midgardians with magic powerful enough to restrain a god – that was pretty worrying.

Thor stood up as Tony walked over, and with a whispered “Don’t tell him I told you anything!” he quickly departed.

Tony sat in Thor’s vacant seat. “We’re giving it until tomorrow morning, and then we’ll start thinking about looking for him okay?”

“Thor thinks they’re holding him prisoner.” you replied. “They’re trying to use him as bait; they want us to go back.”

Tony opened his mouth, and then closed it again. “What did Thor tell you.”

“Nothing, just that. Tony, I’m not just gonna sit here and wait for him if he’s out there being held prisoner by… those people, they’re dangerous – “

“Not as dangerous as him.” Tony countered.

Suddenly you were on your feet, breathing hard; your magic right below the surface. Gods, you hadn’t realised how angry you felt. The room was suddenly very quiet.

“Y/N, I didn’t mean…”

“He’s just like the rest of us. He made a mistake, and it had consequences! No on in this room can say they’ve got a clean record, no one.” The silence that followed this statement was heavy with thoughts of the things everyone had done to earn them the status of not having a clean record. It lasted a while.

“I just… I don’t truly believe that if anyone else had been left behind we’d all be sat here having breakfast like nothing had happened.” you finished, sitting down heavily as pain spiked across your chest again.

“It’s not because of who was left behind, it’s too dangerous to go back there now, two of you were seriously hurt last night and the rest of us didn’t exactly have an easy time either. We need to be prepared, and we also need to make sure they don’t come after us again… we’re safe here.” Tony said, watching you rub your hand across your chest. “Does it hurt?”

“No, I’m fine.” you replied, still breathing hard.

“It’s just for today Y/N, then tomorrow we’ll start looking, I promise.”

The rest of the day passed excruciatingly slowly. You couldn’t eat, couldn’t read, couldn’t go outside, couldn’t do anything but worry about Loki. Around mid-day you started to feel tired again, even though you’d slept for about seven hours last night; Tony explained that it was common after something as fatal as a heart attack that your body needed more time to rest. You must have fallen asleep, because when you next opened your eyes it was dark outside; the time on your phone read 5:33pm. Another five hours. Loki had now been missing for over fourteen hours. You clenched your jaw through the pain in your chest as you stood up and walked through the compound looking for people, until eventually you came across everyone in the third floor living room.

“Hey Y/N, good sleep?” Tony asked. He looked tired.

“Yeah, thanks, I…” you trailed off as you looked out of the floor to ceiling window.

“Y/N? What are you… oh.” Steve said, following your gaze.

Outside, stood on the grass, was Loki.


	3. Through the rain

You were unable to speak for a good ten seconds.

“I… can anyone else see him too?” you finally asked shakily.

“Yes. Yes, he’s there.” Thor said disbelievingly, standing up.

“Y/N wait…” but you weren’t waiting, you were gone, hurtling down the stairs and skidding across the lobby to the front doors where you slammed your hand against the hand recognition device to open the doors. Outside, you heard a huge rumble of thunder, and then, as the doors opened, the heaviest rain you’d ever seen. Relieved laughter bubbled in your throat; sometimes Thor was as awful at controlling his emotions as you were.

“Sorry! Sorry.” you heard him call, before you were running out into the rain towards Loki.

Your chest was tight and you were breathless by the time you got to him, even though it was only a short run, but you couldn’t care less. He was here, he was okay. You tried to say his name but no sound came out, just a relieved sob as you reached out to him in the rain.

“Gods, are you okay?” you finally managed, blinking rain out of your eyes. You could barely see it was so torrential, but something… felt wrong.

“Yeah, I’m all good, I’m so glad to see you babe!” he replied, pulling you into a tight hug. You froze up. Babe? Loki had never called you babe; you doubted the word had ever left his lips before now. In fact, you were sure they hadn’t, because whoever had you in this bone-crushing embrace right now was definitely not Loki, despite the fact that he looked and sounded exactly like him. Your mind raced, what should you do? This was obviously magic, which meant that you were currently trapped in the embrace of one of ‘the men’. You fought the urge to shove him away, no, think strategically. But now he was pulling away, think Y/N, think.

“Let’s get inside huh?” the man disguised as Loki said, and put a hand on your lower back, propelling you towards the door leading into the compound. You could see the others crowded at the window looking down at you, and you mouthed ‘help me’ as subtly as possible, praying that they would understand. ‘Loki’ looked up at the window too, and gave everyone a cheery wave. Gods, this guy had not done his homework. At least now everyone else would know something was wrong; you were relieved to see Tony had already disappeared from the window.

But until he got here, it was your job to make sure that this guy didn’t get into the compound.

“Whoa hey! Did you see that?” you said suddenly, spinning around and pointing at the sky.

“No, what…?” the man was cut off as you shoved him away from you roughly and the compound and concentrated your magic around him, holding him down to the ground. Loki’s face stared up at you incredulously, and then broke into a grin.

“Well aren’t you a clever girl?” he sneered, pushing back against your magic; you were struggling, he had stronger magic than yours, you could feel it.

“Where’s Loki. What have you done with him?” you practically hissed, using all of your strength to keep this guy down.

“Oh don’t worry, he’s perfectly safe… for now.” he taunted, and then you were flying backwards through the air, and landing hard on the wet ground with a thud. Before you even had time to move you were being hauled to your feet, and then there was something cold and sharp to your neck: knife. You watched in horror as more men – the same as yesterday, surrounded the area.

Your friends spilled out of the door leading to the compound, Tony in the lead with his suit on, stopping short when they saw your position. For a moment you all stood frozen, in the torrential rain. Another rumble of thunder sounded right over your heads.

“Let her go.” Tony said, the first to talk.

“Mm, no, I don’t think I will.” the man said casually, pressing the knife harder to your neck. You didn’t dare breathe, for fear the knife was going to pierce your skin. He no longer sounded like Loki, or looked like him; his hands were shorter and fatter now. Your magic was fighting to get out of you and into this mans face, but you knew you had to wait. Sparks flew from your fingers; you clenched your fists.

“You see, we were unsure about whether we’d even be able to obtain one prisoner, let alone two! And now we have them, so now it’s time to negotiate.”

“Negotiate what?” Tony ventured, slowly making his way further and further forward towards you.

“We’ll be asking for two things, in return for two prisoners.” the man told Tony.

Oh gods. These guys couldn’t get their hands on anything that was in the compound, Tony had some ground-breaking stuff in there; you dreaded to think what these guys would do with it. But you knew Tony. If he thought you were in danger…

You were going to have to attack, but first you needed to know if Loki was anywhere near. This rain was so heavy; you were starting to get cold. Couldn’t Thor control it?

“You only have one prisoner.” you breathed, scared to move your throat in any way.

“You what?” the man behind you said, tightening his grip on you.

“I only see one prisoner, me. Where’s the other one.” you asked boldly.

Just show me Loki, tell me he’s here too.

Tony understood what you were trying to do.

“No negotiations until we see the other prisoner unharmed.” he told the man behind you.

“Fine, someone bring the other prisoner.” the man scowled, and two men turned and ran into the darkness. Where were they keeping him? A jet?

You strained your eyes, looking through the darkness and the rain to see him, but the man behind you grabbed your hair and pulled it back sharply so that you were looking up at him.

“No funny business girl. It doesn’t take an idiot to work out that you and the god are fond of one another, we saw you go back into the fire when you finally realised he was gone – we thought you would never notice!” At this your eyes stung with angry tears; you prayed he wouldn’t notice with the rain running down your face. “So, you try anything, and I kill your boyfriend. Deal?”

You were shaking with rage as he let go of your hair to let your head drop, and then felt your knees nearly give out in relief when you saw Loki not thirty feet away from you. He looked… you couldn’t find a word to describe how angry he looked. He had his gaze fixed on the guy behind you, looking… incandescent with rage. You could see a muscle going in his jaw; it was evident he couldn’t move because of the magic, because if he could you were certain the man holding the knife to your throat would not be in great shape. Apart from a bruise on his forehead, he looked fine, and now the relief was fading… and anger was taking its place. The man behind you was talking again, but you weren’t paying attention, why hadn’t you attacked him yet? You could see Steve shaking his head violently at you – he knew you too well. He would also be aware that you were about to completely ignore him. The men all around were backing up nervously, and one of them said “Uhh, boss?” You were quite literally glowing with magic.

The man spun you around to face him, anger distorting his features.

“I’m afraid that glowing counts as ‘funny business’ girl.” he hissed, the knife still to your neck.

“Oh yeah? And what about this?” you asked innocently, slamming your head hard into his and grabbing the wrist of the hand holding the knife. He flew backwards surprisingly far, now without the knife, and then you were on top of him, and the knife was in his shoulder. He roared in pain and started yelling, but you didn’t hang around to hear his curses, because fighting had exploded between the other men and your friends behind you. You flew back over, fighting against the rain and scanning the situation quickly. Negotiations out the window, the men were attacking the compound now, so everyone had formed a circle around the door. Tony was missing, but the compound was being put into complete lockdown; you assumed he had something to do with that.

You flew lower, squinting against the rain, where was Loki? Panicking slightly, you spun in a full circle, still unable to see properly, this stupid rain! Suddenly, there was the loudest rumble of thunder yet, and then lightning, which hit the ground far over the other side of the compound grounds. It was Thor. There was a small huddle of men over there, and a huge jet, hiding in the night. And in the middle of them, Loki. That was twice you’d nearly lost him in the last day, all because of these men. It was really quite annoying, you thought, as you hurtled down towards the small group. You hit the ground hard and used the force to release a powerful blast of magic which travelled through the ground and knocked all the men off of their feet, apart from Thor.

“Get Loki out, I’ll hold them off.” he told you, gripping Mjolnir and turning to face the hoard of men which had broken away from the compound are were now heading over here. That was all very well, you thought, creating a shield around you and Loki (a welcome break from the downpour), but you had no clue how you were meant to get him out. You turned to Loki and couldn’t help but choke up a bit when you saw the worry in his eyes when he looked at you. This was definitely your Loki. Forgetting the fight raging outside the protective bubble you’d created for a moment you cupped his face in your hands and pressed your forehead against his, closing your eyes in relief. You were never letting him out of your sight again. You felt him exhale heavily through his nose, and you opened your eyes to meet his gaze, which flicked to the fight outside and then back to you.

“I know, I just don’t know how to get you out of… this.” you said, dropping your arms to your side and flinching as another lightning strike hit the ground right on the other side of your shield. You pushed your dripping hair back from your face and frowned at Loki, whose eyes were searching your face imploringly, trying to tell you something.

“You know how to get out, how?” you desperately tried to understand what he was trying to tell you. Loki rolled his eyes.

“Yes, I know you can’t speak… blink for yes okay? Do you need me to do something?”

He blinked, hard.

“My magic?” you asked. He blinked again.

You shook your head, at a loss. “My magic isn’t powerful enough…”

He glared at your hand, and then stared down at his hand meaningfully, then back at you.

You reached out and took his hand, puzzled, and immediately felt the weirdest sensation, like your magic was being sucked away. You pulled your hand away in surprise, and then realised what he was doing.

“You need my magic.” you realised. Relief flooded Loki’s eyes as he blinked again, and you couldn’t help but smile. 

“Will… will I be able to use it after?”

Loki hesitated, then blinked.

You exhaled heavily. You were just going to have to trust him. It was probably safe.

“Okay.” you said, and picked up both of his hands with both of yours, stepping closer to him. The sensation started again, and you closed your eyes. After a couple of seconds, you felt Loki’s hands squeeze tighter around yours, and he pulled you closer to him. Your eyes flew open, it was working! A few more seconds passed, and then just as you started feeling dizzy, your shield disappeared and you were both instantly soaked by the rain; the noise of the fight was suddenly and deafeningly loud.

Your head was spinning – you’d almost gotten used to this by now; it wasn’t something you wanted to become a regular occurrence. 

“Hurry up!” you heard Thor yell, but a second later there was another shield around you and Loki, this time green.

“Y/N…” Loki was holding your shoulders tightly, staring at you intently.

“I’m okay, I’m fine.” you replied, swaying slightly. “It worked, now go… fight.”

“No, you need your magic back, that was too dangerous what we just did.”

You nodded vigorously. You did need your magic back, you felt horrible, empty.

“Tell me if it hurts, even a tiny bit.” Loki told you, taking your hands.

Ten seconds later, you couldn’t even remember what the problem had been; with your magic back things were crystal clear again, it almost felt like you’d just be reborn.

“Okay?” Loki asked nervously, still holding your hands.

You nodded, watching the glow of magic return to your hands, relieved that it hadn’t gone horribly wrong, and then Loki had his arms around you, tight.

“Usually I’m not one to complain, but I think they could use some help out there.” you suggested, watching Thor nearly trip over as he swung Mjolnir around his head.

“Yes, of course, let’s go.” he replied, quickly detaching himself from you.

Was he crying? Loki didn’t cry. Ever.

“This time, would you actually stay close to me please?” he asked, shooting you a look. A pang of guilt went through you, even though he meant it to be funny.

“I’m right behind you.” you smiled.

Then the shield was gone, the rain was in your face and you were in between Loki and Thor, blasting the men again.

“About time!” Thor said loudly. “I thought you’d be stuck in there forever.”

“Let’s get back over to the compound!” you yelled through the rain.

“Brother, can’t you stop this deluge?!” Loki shouted, grabbing you as he rose into the air with Thor.

“You think I haven’t tried? It’s out of my hands.” Thor replied, and you flew back over to the compound with your shield protecting the three of you.

“There you are!” Tony yelled in relief as you landed; he was back in his suit after putting the compound into lockdown and fighting alongside the others.

“Why are they not getting less!” Wanda shouted in desperation. “They’re still coming!”

“YOU!” a voice bellowed through the darkness, and suddenly you were flying away from the rest of the group and landing in a sprawling heap on the grass, again.

Suddenly the man who was holding a knife to your throat was back, his shoulder covered in blood and now he was on top of you with the same knife. He didn’t look very happy.

“You. Ruined. EVERYTH-” And then he wasn’t on top of you anymore.

You sat up breathlessly to see Loki holding the man up in the air with his magic – the same spell they’d been keeping him under. Thor was by your side instantly to help you up, and then to ward off the men still fighting who weren’t watching Loki levitate their boss.

“Listen very closely to me. If you so much as lay a hand on her one more time, I will personally see to it that you never feel anything again. Understand?”

The mans face was going slowly purple as he stared daggers at Loki through the rain.

“Loki.” you said gently; you didn’t want this man’s blood on his hands because of you.

Loki dropped the man unceremoniously on the ground and observed him as he struggled to his feet. It was obvious that he knew he’d lost.

“This isn’t over.” he spat, before turning around and marching off towards the jet. Thankfully, all the other men noticed him retreating and followed suit. You breathed a huge sigh of relief – you couldn’t have taken much more of that. Tony refused to take the compound off of lockdown until they’d taken off and were out of sight, and when they were he ushered you all inside and then locked the building down again. The minute you were all inside, the rain stopped. You all turned to glare at Thor, who threw his hands in the air.

“Is everyone okay? No serious injuries?” Tony asked, giving the group a once over.

“Guys! Are you okay?” Bucky hollered from upstairs.

“All okay!” Steve yelled, and gestured up the stairs. “Hot showers and food?” he suggested.

That sounded good to you.

You all traipsed up the stairs, battle worn and aching, but you only made it to the first floor before you had to stop, breathless and weary.

“Y/N? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Loki asked, concerned.

“Don’t worry, breathlessness and fatigue are common after-effects of a heart attack.” Tony told him, having hung back to make sure you were okay.

“Common… a heart attack?!” Loki asked incredulously.

“It was… just a little one…” you panted, holding your thumb and forefinger a centimetre apart to demonstrate, doubled over with pain from your chest.

“And you didn’t think this information was necessary to tell me before I took your magic?” Loki asked sarcastically.

“It’s fine… you needed-”

“Before you what?” Tony exclaimed, turning to Loki.

“I know, I wasn’t happy about it either, but it was the only way I could…”

“You took her magic! Do you know how dangerous that is, even without her having had a heart attack less than twenty-four hours before?!”

“Yes, funnily enough I am aware of the ins and outs of magic, and I decided that she was strong enough…”

“Oh, you decided did you?”

“I knew what I was doing! I would never do anything like that if I thought that Y/N couldn’t take it, which she could, and did!”

“Yes, evidently.” Tony scorned, gesturing to you, still doubled over and breathing heavily.

Then they both seemed to realise that you were still present.

“Here, I’ll carry you…”

“No, Loki, carry on flirting with Tony, I can climb a stupid flight of stairs by myself.” you said, pushing his hand away and standing up to carry on, swaying on your feet.

“I know you can.” he said, putting your arm over his shoulder and picking you up, following Tony up the rest of the stairs. You rested your head against his chest, feeling your eyes droop already.

“Tony…”

“Don’t worry, she just needs to rest.” Tony said shortly. “Listen, I’m sorry, but if anything had happened to her…”

“I know. Sorry.” Loki said.

“You’re both going soft on me.” you muttered, and heard Tony chuckle.

“Rest, Y/N, no more magic now alright?” Tony instructed.

You were too tired to do anything other than nod.

When you got to the top of the stairs you insisted on Loki putting you down (“I’m not an invalid Loki!”) and went to your room to have a hot shower and get comfier clothes on which weren’t soaked with rainwater, mud, and blood.

Then, you joined Loki on the sofa in an empty living room. You were nearly drifting off, lying comfortably across the sofa with your head on Loki’s lap, when he spoke.

“That was a nice headbutt you pulled off back there.”

“I know right? Hurt like a bitch though.”

“I see that.” he replied, tapping your forehead.

“Is there a bruise?” you frowned. You hadn’t noticed, although, there wasn’t much time for checking out your reflection in battle.

“Yeah, a bit.” Loki smiled, brushing his hand over your head.

“We’re matching.” you commented, pointing up at his bruised forehead.

“We are.” he replied, sounding choked up again.

“What’s wrong? Why do you keep getting upset?” you asked, reaching up to cup your hand around his cheek. He leaned into it and closed his eyes, putting one of his hands over yours.

“Loki?” you asked again, watching him with concern.

“I thought you were dead.” he whispered. “I thought it was my fault.”

You sat up abruptly and turned to stare at him.

“Why would you think that?”

“I heard you… after I thought you’d all got out of the fire safely and they’d already… got me. I heard you calling for me and I couldn’t get to you, and then they dragged me out… I couldn’t move, or make a noise…” Now he definitely had tears in his eyes. “I didn’t know whether you’d managed to get out or not…”

You moved to sit on his lap, and then wrapped your arms around him, resting your cheek against his.

“I’m just so glad you’re okay.” he breathed, blinking hard.

“I went back in for you, when I realised you weren’t in the Quinjet. I felt awful for not realising you were missing earlier, everything was just so hectic, and the smoke…”

“Why would you deliberately fly into a burning building you idiot?” Loki laughed, squeezing you gently.

“Tony had to drag me out.” you admitted. “It was pretty stupid.”

“Tony got you out?” he asked.

“Yes, so stop being horrible to him.” you replied, smiling to show you were joking.

You were silent for a couple of minutes after that, and you started to drop off again.

“Lie down love.” Loki told you, and you put your head back in his lap and stretched out across the sofa.

“I knew that it wasn’t you straight away, by the way.” you murmured, entwining your fingers with his.

“What?”

“The man who was pretending to be you, with the magic, I knew it wasn’t you.”

“Hold on, he pretended to be me? I’m going to need you to elaborate slightly.” Loki said, incredulously.

“He turned up in the grounds looking like you, and I went outside, that’s when it started raining. He called me babe, and then waved at everyone in the window.” you said, smiling at how stupid it sounded.

“And you knew it wasn’t me straight away did you?”

“Well, pretty much.”

“What does that mean, ‘pretty much’?” he asked indignantly.

“Well, from fifty metres away through the pouring rain, yes, I thought it was you, but I knew it wasn’t you even before I got near enough for him to hug me.”

“He hugged you.” Loki repeated.

“Yes.”

“Should’ve killed the bastard.”

“Loki!”

“I’m kidding! Kidding…”

“I think we did them enough damage for today.” you mused, your eyes shut again.

“Maybe.” Loki said.

You were asleep within five minutes, and only woke up briefly when Loki was carrying you to bed.

“Stay.” you whispered, once you were under the duvet and already falling back asleep.

“You say that as if you were under the impression I had other plans.” he replied, climbing in with you, making you smile sleepily.

You slept well that night.


End file.
